Sidense denies Kilopass patent infringement allegations

LONDON  Sidense Corp. (Ottawa, Canada), a developer of antifuse-based non-volatile memory IP cores, has said that the legal proceedings brought against it by rival memory IP supplier Kilopass Technology Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif,) for alleged patent infringement, are without substance or merit.

Xerxes Wania, CEO of Sidense, said Sidense has more than 40 patents issued and pending and is broadly accepted in the market as the leading supplier of embedded one-time programmable non-volatile memory IP. "We firmly believe Sidense and our customers will not be affected by this patent dispute," he said, in a statement. Wania added, "Given our success in the market and our expanding customer base, we can only speculate as to the motivation behind these unproven allegations."

Kilopass had announced that it had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sidense Corp. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on May 14, 2010, alleging infringement of Kilopass' one-transistor antifuse technology.

Kilopass has been granted fiver 1T patents by the United State Patent and Trademark Office which are by number 6,777,757, 6,856,540, 6,898,116, 6,940,751and 6,992,925.

"Kilopass has faithfully followed the road of a good corporate citizen, having invested heavily in research, developed products and filed over 50 patent applications while receiving 40 patents," said Kilopass CEO Charlie Cheng, in a statement. "We don't take litigations lightly, recognizing their severity and cost. However, it's time to seek the court's assistance, and stop Sidense from using Kilopass technology without permission and, by doing so, misleading customers."

Cheng added: "Our more than 80 customers have entered into licenses with Kilopass with the understanding that they will enjoy both the privileges and rights of using intellectual property based upon our patents.Therefore, we have no choice but to use all legal means necessary to enforce our patents to ensure a fair market place, with fair pricing and business practices for both Kilopass and our customers."